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Comment by lexandstuff | Hacker News Reader

Airbnb bookings are down worldwide because interest rates are sky-high, and people have less discretionary spending.

Here's an article from Australia talking about how Airbnb bookings are down in our tourist destinations: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-19/airbnb-hosts-revert-b...

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I’m not sure I believe that people have less discretionary spending, at least in the US. According to one article[1], hotel prices are up 54% year-over-year. Anecdotally, restaurant prices are up by a similar amount compared to pre-pandemic. Things might change when all of the people with paused student loans have to resume repaying them later this year, but we’ll see.

[1] https://money.com/hotel-prices-up-2023-travel/

Prices alone are not useful without volume. How is Hotel occupancy or how are dining out habits compared to pre pandemic? Maybe there are fewer customers with deeper pockets?

You make a good point, but everything seems very busy at restaurants and shopping centers to me. Many times, I have wanted to go out to some restaurant and found that it was booked out for weeks. So I’m finding the “low volume” idea hard to believe. It may be that there are fewer restaurants now than before, but demand is certainly there in my area. Some people are stretching their credit cards[1], but also people saved up while the pandemic was in high gear and that savings is not yet exhausted for everyone.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/consumers-record-credit-card-de...

More anecdata, but I am remembering that I had to stand in line to enter the LEGO store at my local mall a couple weeks ago. I have been to that same store many times before and never had to stand in line previously.

The restaurant I go to almost every Friday for lunch almost didn’t have a table available for my party when we arrived the other day. That’s never happened before either.

Of course, there is some seasonality going on. It’s summer, the weather is gorgeous, and people want to be out doing things. But if people are hunkering down and cutting their spending, I sure as heck am not seeing it.

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